Something Good #27: A Lost Children's Story
The story takes place in Vienna. The year isn’t entirely clear, but the sense is that we are in the waning years of the “nervous splendour” of the Austro-...
Something Good #26: A Séance for Houdini
One thing that can be good to do is to sift through ancient newspaper archives in search of stories and mysteries about your surroundings. I first discovered...
Something Good #25: What I'm Into
Me, into something. I’m into a bunch of stuff these days. Here are some of things I am into, followed by a short list of things I am not. Into: Melatonin I...
Something Good #24: The Something Good
This week’s newsletter is in liquid form. To mark the beginning of summer, I reached out to my friend Michelle Marek, pastry chef at the very excellent...
Something Good #23: Tropical Truth
In response to last week’s call for advice, requests for personalized recommendations, etc., reader Stephanie Marks writes: I’m taking you up on the offer...
Something Good #22: Some of My Favourite YouTube Comments
One of the many weird places this project took me [Note: The playlist below was designed to be listened to while you read this one. No big deal if not...
Something Good #21: The Secret History of Syncretic Software
I was going through some old photos recently—like, actual film photos, with the idea of finally getting around to scanning them—when I found one of the pope....
Something Good #20: Catching Up With the Potato Chip Professor
(l-r) Bret’s Paprika Fumé, Chèvre & Piment d’Espelette flavours At some point last week it suddenly became summer. I’m not interested exploring in the surely...
Something Good #19: A Gustatory Odyssey
For as long back as I can remember, my favourite film has been Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (well, The Neverending Story filled that role for a...
Something Good #18: How the Seltzer Is Made
I used to be pretty into tap water. A cold glass of the stuff, straight from the city pipes, was my favourite thing in the world to drink, more than wine,...
Something Good #17: Four More Lives
Often when reading, researching or procrastinating, I come across a real-life character whose story fascinates or touches me in some deep way. When I can’t...
Something Good #16: Sacred MP3s With Cadence Weapon
One of my inspirations when I started Something Good was Rollie Pemberton’s Cadence Weapon newsletter, which is also the name he’s been producing music under...
Something Good #15: Unstuck in Time
Paul Nash, “The Menin Road” (1919) PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake, which I am pretty confident saying is my favourite album of the 21st Century so far, is now...
Something Good #14: Requiem for a Strip Club
I had never stepped into Bar EXXXotica, but I was always happy it was there. Situated on a pretty normal block on Avenue du Parc, alongside a bank, a couple...
Something Good #13: A Couple of Things That I Thought About for a Long Time
I have this habit of hearing about something interesting, or coming up with a good idea, and then not pursuing the topic for a long time. Eventually, I...
Something Good #12: The Institute for the Study of 3:32pm, April 10, 1954
I had been feeling guilty about having watched so few movies during 12 months of confinement so the other night I put on 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. I...
Something Good #11: No Jackets Required
What you’re about to read may shock you. I don’t know how many books I have. Certainly in the hundreds. I like owning books! I always have more than I can...
Something Good #10: The Potato Chip Professor
Recently I interviewed flavour historian Nadia Berenstein for an upcoming podcast episode about the science of snacking. She said something about chips that...
Something Good #9: The Elevator Lobbies of the Hotel Thermal
I was once unexpectedly invited to attend the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in my then-role as the film section editor of an alternative weekly. I...
Something Good #8: So Speaks Galactus
I tore through Abraham Josie Riesman’s True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee in a nonstop marathon weekend reading session. At 400-some-odd pages, the...